


Happy in the End

by midnighttypewriter



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1577723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnighttypewriter/pseuds/midnighttypewriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I still can't believe you two were 'stepping out' with lesbians," Tony muttered, though mostly to himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy in the End

**Author's Note:**

> Partially inspired by a [Tumblr post](http://midnighttypewriter.tumblr.com/post/84952051946/setphaserstostucky-twasitwas).

It was ten seconds after Maria Hill had announced she was meeting her wife for dinner and left the Avengers Tower living room that Tony turned to Steve and Bucky. "Are you two shocked and offended?" 

"By?" Bucky asked, leaning back in his chair. 

"Was she supposed to invite us along?" Steve leaned over Bucky's shoulder and stole a fry from his plate. Bucky batted his hand away, though as gently as was possible with his metal arm.

Tony gaped at them. 

Bucky smirked and he was almost sure Steve had a similar expression on his face. "It's not your generation that invented the sex, Stark. Even the gay kind." He heard Steve choke. There, that was for stealing his food.

"Excuse me for assuming men born in the 20s would be a little old-fashioned," Tony said. "And here I've had this wonderful lecture on equality all ready…" He was pouting, though Bucky assumed it was more because he couldn't prove them to be a little bigoted rather than because he had missed the chance to deliver said lecture. 

"We lived in a, you could say, friendly neighborhood," Steve said with a shrug. "We've seen things."

Bucky looked at him and found his own expression of somewhat-offended amusement mirrored on Steve's face. "Do you remember Steph and Jane?" he asked. 

A fond smile appeared at Steve's face. Then it turned nostalgic. "Nice dames… Women. My favorite double dates," he said, turning to Tony. "I didn't have to worry whether the girl would like me as I already knew she wouldn't."

"Steph had a fella in the army, I think," Bucky joined in on the explaining. "But we knew they were together, she and Jane. We took them out sometimes." He shrugged. There was also the story about how he met the couple, in a place that had catered to the queer clientele, but he had actually never told Steve that part and he wasn't going to discuss that. It would inevitably lead to a discussion about what Bucky was doing in that bar and how he liked to pretend that he was actually taking out Steve rather than any girl… Nothing good could come of that. 

"Not that Bucky didn't get us enough double dates with girls who were actually interested in him," Steve added. Bucky glared at him, because of course Steve would put it that way. If you asked Bucky, Steve had always been a catch, Serum or not, and it was genuinely baffling that he hadn't had much luck with girls back then. "I'm just happy to see that some things have improved while I was in the ice. It was harsh for people back then."

"I wonder if they've ever got a happy ending," Bucky mussed, his mind still on times past. Those two really had been nice young women. He looked at Steve again. "Maybe they've lived long enough to get married." It was unlikely, he knew, but he liked the thought.

"We could look them up?" Tony suggested. 

Steve and Bucky shook their heads at the same time. They knew how unlikely it was that they would find anything positive and as long as they didn't look, they could always pretend. There were so many people they mourned already and so many whose fates were less pleasant than they would have deserved.

"I still can't believe you two were 'stepping out' with lesbians," Tony muttered, though mostly to himself.

"If it makes it any easier on your brain, I think Steph might have been bisexual?"

***

"I think they did get a happy ending," Steve said later, laying on a couch with his arms folded under his head. He wore the expression Bucky had dubbed his idealist one. "Even if it was without a marriage or anything."

Bucky shrugged. "Perhaps," he said and sat down to Steve, nudging Steve's legs out of the way. With a grunt, Steve shifted to make enough space for Bucky and sat up. 

"What about us? Do you think we'll ever get a happy ending?" he continued. His tone was light, almost teasing, but the way he was watching Bucky… He was searching his face for something and it made Bucky feel oddly self-conscious.

He gave Steve a suspicious look. "You will, sooner or later," he said slowly. "I'm not entirely sure I deserve one." 

Predictably, Steve glared at him. "Stop it." He reached his hand out and rested his hand on Bucky's shoulder. When Bucky twisted to face him properly, Steve shifted the hand to Bucky's neck. "But that's not what I meant, you know that." 

Steve's face was closer than Bucky had expected. He could feel Steve's breath on his skin and his gaze slid to Steve's slightly parted lips. His heart skipped a beat, it was almost painful. He ached to lean in and that urge wasn't new, but he couldn't remember the last time it was so intense. Perhaps he could do it.

"The only way to ever get a happy ending is to begin somewhere, you know," Steve said and there was a hint of amusement in his voice. He caressed Bucky's jaw with his thumb, looking at him with expectation in his eyes.

To hell with it, Bucky thought and closed the distance between them.

The kiss wasn't everything he had hoped for. It was better. When he had imagined this happening, it was always a little shy and clumsy and ended too soon, but would be followed by many proper ones. Instead, it turned out that they needed no test run. Steve kissed with confidence but with no hurry, his lips fitting against Bucky's as if they were meant to be there. Yet it was much chaster than Bucky would have liked, because Steve's tongue just barely brushed Bucky's lips before Steve broke away.

"How did you know?" Bucky asked. It was the only explanation for the turn of events that he could think of. Steve knew about his pathetic love for him and decided to give it a try. Yet the way Steve was looking at him, the way he had kissed him… it was difficult to not think he had meant every second of it, that he wanted this just as badly as Bucky had always wanted it. 

"I didn't," Steve admitted, grinning. His hand was still cupping Bucky's neck and he moved it up to his cheek. "But I decided to take a risk." 

"That habit's going to get you in trouble one day."

"It pays off most of the time. So… will you try for a happy ending with me?" 

For a moment, Bucky wasn't sure what to say and he turned his gaze away. He wanted to say yes, of course. He wanted so many repeats of that kiss that their lips would end up permanently swollen. He wanted to take Steve out for a proper date, no need to invite someone else along. What came out, however, was: "Is that what you want?"

"More than anything." Steve voice was earnest and as much as Bucky wanted, he couldn't doubt him. Because Steve didn't play with people's feelings. "What do _you_ want?"

Not wanting to get all sappy, Bucky simply gestured to the whole of Steve.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're waiting for a new chapter of [New Definitions](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1545572/chapters/3273734), I'm working on it, I promise! But I've been wanting to write this for a while now and today felt like a good time for it.
> 
> (I now also kind of want to write a prequel to this.)


End file.
